Apparatus for drying malt



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

WQ'H. PRINZ. APPARATUS FOR DRYING MALT.

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2 Sheets-Sheet 2/ (No Model.) A

' W. H. PRINZ.

APPARATUS FOR DRYING MAL'T'.

Patented May 31 kli il Mfzz esses:

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UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. PRINZ, onnUsTn nLINo s, ss cNo To THE SALADIN PNEU- MATIo MALTING CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

APPARATUS FOR DRYING 'MALTL SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent- No. 605,012, dated May 31, 1898. Application filed July 10, 1897. Serial No. 644,141. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. PRINZ,a citizen of the United States, residing at Austin,

in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Drying Malt; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description. of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to ainovel construction in a malt-drying apparatus, the object being to provide a device of this description in which the air-currents for drying the malt can be regulated both as to temperature and direction; and it consists in the features of construction and'combinations of parts hereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is a vertical longitu dinal section of a malt-drying apparatus constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section of the same on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Referring now to said drawings, A indicates a drying apparatus having two dumpingfloors B and C, a hopper-floor D beneath the same, an ash-fioorE beneath said hopper-floor D, and a basement or heating-chamber F beneath said ash-floor E, in which a furnace G is situated. Said chamber F is connected with said other chamber, above the same, by

means of fiues H in the walls of said drier,

which communicates with all of said chambers through openings I, which are controlled by means of valves 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. A pressure-fan Kis employed to feed air underneath the grates of the furnace G, and an exhaustfan L is provided in the upper endof the kiln for exhausting the air and creating a draft. The draft is controlled by means of valve-controlled passages M, connected with the suction end of said fan. Said valves 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are operated by means of shafts 6, which in turn are controlled by means of cables 7, having separate connection with each of said shafts, so that any desired valves may be. opened and the remaining valves remain closed, thus deflecting the air-currents in any desired manner. Valves 8, controlled quired to finish the drying, would produce a fiinty or steely malt, and thus reduce its value. It is also necessary that the lumps formed in the grain should be brokenup and the entire mass loosened to give the air access to all parts of the mass and dry'the same evenly. For this purpose I provide skeleton screws 10 on the upperfioor of the kiln which are revolved and advanced through the body of the malt very slowly, so as to loosen without agitating, displacing, or turningthe malt, and

thus mixing a portion of very moist malt and remoistening the drier-body, which tends to make the latter acidulous and retards the drying process. During this first stage of the drying process the air, as before stated, should be reduced in temperature, and by means of the valves 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 I am enabled to effect a reduction of temperature of the air without reducing the fire in the furnace. For this purpose I open the valves 1 wide and the valves 2 only partially, thereby introducing cold air into said fines H through said lowermost openings and hot air through the opening above the ash-floor. This hot and cold air mixed is then introduced below the floor B through,the openings controlled by the valves 4, the valves 3 and 5 being closed. This air is then drawn through the malt on the floor B. 'As hotter air is desired the valves 1 are gradually closed, the valves 2 and 3 opened, and the valves 4 closed, thus admitting the hot air underneath the floor O and causing it to pass first through the malt on said floor and then through the malt on the floor. B.

The malt after having reached a certain degree of dryness is dumped from the floor B to the floor C, where the drying is completed, and just priorto its removal to the hoppers it is subjected to a very high temperature for a short period to finish the drying. This extremely hot air is very injurious to the partially-dried malt on the floor B, and to prevent its passage through said malt I open the valves l and 5, thus obviously causing the air to pass through the fiues and avoid the malt on the floor B. After this final operation has been completed the malt 011 the floor G is dumped into the hoppers, the malt 011 the floor B is dumped on the floor O, and the floor B is reloaded with green malt. I then cool the malt in said hoppers by means of the perforated spouts of the hoppers, as described in my application for patent filed April 29, 1897, Serial No. 63l,322, the fires in the furnace G being damped during this time, and the valves 1, 2, 3, and i being opened and valves 5 and 8 closed. This will cause the air to pass from the openings controlled by valves 1 through openings controlled by valves 2 through the malt in the hoppers, where it is heated by absorbing the heat stored in said malt, thence through openings controlled by valves 3 into the tines, and thence through the openings controlled by valves t and through the green malt on the floor B. This operation is continued for a short time until the malt in the hoppers is sufficiently cool, when the latter is conveyed to the elevator orstorehouse. lhe fires are then again fed, the openings controlled by valves 3 closed, and mixed hot and cold air thus passed through the malt on lloor 13 until the same is sufficiently dried to be subjected to hotter air, to which the malt on floor C must be subjected to finish the drying of the same, when the valves 1 and 4: are also closed and the hot air passed through the malt on both floors. It

will be noted that I have provided means for operating all of said valves separately, and

for this purpose I provide sheaves 11 on the ends of said shaft 0, over which cables 7 are trained, which are provided with handles 12 on both of their depending ends. Obviously by pulling on one of said handles 12 one of the shafts (3 will be turned in one direction and by pulling on the other handle 12 on the same cable it will be turned in the opposite direction, thus opening or closing said valves, as the case may be.

The construction herein shown and described can be applied to any other form of malt-kiln besides the one herein shown and described, it being understood that the number of valve-controlled openings communicating with the fines may be varied to conform to the requirements in various constructions without departing from the spirit of my in- Vention.

I claim as my invention- In an apparatus for drying malt, a plurality of perforated drying-floors situated one above the other, a heating-chamber below the lowermost of said floors, a chamber around said heating-chamber adapted to deliver air to the heater, flues in the walls of said apparatus connecting at their lower ends with said chamher around said heating-chamber, between their ends with the spaces underneath said drying-floors, and at their upper ends with a suction-chamber, and valves controlling said connection, whereby hot, cold or mixed hot and cold air can be passed through the malt on any one, or all of said floors, or avoid all of said floors, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

\VILLIAM IT. I" UNZ.

\Vitnesscs:

RUDOLPH WM. Lo'rz, ERwIN J. Low. 

